Outside Toftlund City, Salt Province
Early in the morning the next day, Sigvid’s boots pound through the crunchy snow carpeting the world on his way home.
After lending an ear to Grim and spending yesterday smothering figurative fires among his Drengr, he is only now returning home.
As the red morning sun crests the trees, he can feel in his bones that he made a grave fucking error in allowing Avina to leave without him.
He can still hear that monster’s voice taunting her. Typically, Samson’s retribution would have been at his hands. However, Grim’s plan of vengeance against the Duke sufficed in this case.
“...Why do you think the Salt Princes have you here? Hmm? Because they like your company?”Samson’s cruel voice nags at his conscience.
I should not have let her leave alone.
At some point in the Arena, Sigvid knew keeping her fate all to himself was the only course of action, even if it meant delaying her death at his hands.
And then, dammit, she almost died on him.
Every godsforsaken action that woman takes, her laughter, even the smile upon those perfect lips, has driven him into an unreasonable obsession. Sometime after the Ulv incident, he realized he relished every bit of her, from her mind to her cute little toes.
How fucking dare that miserable man suggest Sigvid kept her for any other reason than because she ishisideal woman.
Did she believe Samson’s words? That Sigvid would seize her hand all for control of Treland? Fuck, he had his fair share of chances to coerce her into a forced engagement. Even if he has known all along the importance of her blood to the country.
Why would she think I desired any of that now?
The front doors to his home slam open. A lonely crackling fireplace greets him in the central room.
“Avina?” His voice booms to the rafters.
He stomps through the lower part of his home, searching and calling for her yet finding no one. Not even Thora is home.
Why am I always chasing people down in my own home?
Nellie emerges to follow him with lazy eyes. “Where is your mother, Nellie?” He questions the furry creature, whose only answer is to rub against his boots and roll onto her back with a chirp.
If the cat is here, then she is, at the very least, in Toftlund. Where would she have gone if she left Blackwood?
“Sig? Darling?” His mother appears in the doorway to his library with a pair of glasses perched on her nose and a novel clutched in her hand. In the room sits a half-empty bottle of wine on a low table beside a full glass.
“Where the fuck is Avina?” He demands forcibly.
His mother straightens her back and looks severely at him from over the top of her glasses. The action is a familiar warning for him to retract his statement and restate himself. He feels ten winters old again, scolded for bringing his axes to the family table.
“I apologize, Mother. I cannot find her anywhere.” He hesitates and adds, “I am concerned.”
Frida softens as only a mother can. “She went to see your brother.”
“Why the fuck does she have any reason to see Thrain?” Hisknuckles whiten, and red flashes across his gaze, threatening to berserk in front of his innocent–at this moment–mother.
“Your brother mentioned he might ask her-”
“Ask her what?” He spits with a feverish animosity, barely allowing her to finish her sentence. A knowing sensation creeps along his spine. It aided in his reflexes in battle but, as with everything else with Avina, only twists his mental compass.
“Sig, my dear, I am old, not stupid. You stole her from that Arena against her will regardless of her sad attempts to defend your need for vengeance.” She sighs and sets her book on a table in the hall. “I watched you both at the party. I'm thrilled you hold some sentiment for Avie, but she is still your captive. Your abundantly declared intentions have swirled the entire country.”
“Speak what you mean, mother.”
“Thrain expressed interest in marrying Avina. She told me the other night while you and Slode moved Samson.” Frida taps her finger along the wall. “She represents the most lucrative marriage alliance the country has ever seen. You never understood her importance, did you?”
